Soy protein as a basic food has been the subject of intensive research in the Orient for many hundreds and perhaps much more than a thousand years; to date the result of that research is still most commonly "soybean curd"--tofu--and tofu is part of the daily diet of over one billion people*, and is now rapidly spreading in the West where it is presently available in virtually all major population centers, usually even with a selection of competing brands. FNT *Shurtleff & Aoyagi, TOFU & SOYMILK PRODUCTION, The Book of Tofu Volume Two, Soyfoods, 1979, p. 8.
Use of tofu as a basic staple has timely advantages because of these present considerations:
(a) high heart-attack rates in Western society associated with high fat/cholesterol input; PA0 (b) health disadvantages of overweightness associated with high caloric input; PA0 (c) health hazards associated with eating foods high on the food-chain, i.e., higher concentrations of toxic residues in animal products relative to plant; PA0 (d) worldwise competition for depleting resources of food and arable land; PA0 (e) allergies and intolerances associated with animal-milk consumption, including lactose intolerance. PA0 (a) no cholesterol and very little fat, almost all of it poly-unsaturated (the preferred form for digestion); PA0 (b) very low calorie-to-protein ratio; PA0 (c) as it is a plant-food it will commonly contain only a small fraction of the contaminant levels of an animal food source; and as it is a plant-food it is more commonly produced under "organic" growing conditions than animal foods: "organically-grown" soybeans are not infrequently used in commercial tofu-production; which leads to even lower toxicity levels; PA0 (d) one unit-weight of soy-produce a unit weight of comparable beef protein.sup.2 : it is both cheaper to produce than animal protein and more appropriate as a long-term solution to world food needs; FNT .sup.2 Shurtleff & Aoyagi, THE BOOK OF TOFU, Autumn Press, 1975, p. 15. PA0 (e) soy as a substitute for milk products is generally acceptable as a nutritionally sound non-allergy-causing alternative.
All of the above make tofu an attractive food: